Road doesn't get any smoother for Wagner College men

Wagner and Michael Orock kept their season alive with a win on Thursday, but the road doesn't get any easier today when they face RMU. (Staten Island Advance file photo by Derek Alvez)

Tonight's home finale is going to be a serious challenge for Wagner College.

Here's the skinny on the visiting first-place Colonials of Robert Morris:

They are the class of the Northeast Conference.

Period.

Check the 13-2 record over their last 15 games. Nine of those wins came by double-figure margins, including a 104-56 domination of Wagner last month.

Other than Thursday's huge 60-57 upset loss to Monmouth, RMU and has been defeated once in the calendar year of 2009. That defeat was at the hand's of No.4 ranked Pitt.

And its not just the final scores, either.

Mike Rice's club is ranked first or second in the league in offense, defense, field-goal accuracy and three-point shooting. And that's just a peek into the level of conference supremacy RMU has exhibited while going 29-4 in league play since Rice took over at the beginning of last season.

When last checked, the Colonials were power-rated at 110, approximately 190 spots above Wagner in the listings of the nation's 343 Division I programs.

When it comes to the NEC, the Colonials and their team-leading senior guard Jeremy Chappell are the league's best.

Except for Thursday, that is. When they threw in a clunker at Monmouth, shooting just 37 percent from the floor against the Hawks' match-up zone.

But it wasn't just offense that rankled the former Mike Deane assistant who is on his way to his second consecutive conference regular-season title at the suburban Pittsburgh school.

"We didn't defend," Rice said. "We didn't rebound. Now we're going into a hornet's nest against a team that's fighting for its playoff life."

While RMU was stumbling on Thursday, Wagner was pulling its biggest upset of the season: A 70-65 home win over second-place Mt. St. Mary's.

"We played better than we have," said coach Mike Deane, who was one of the people to give the 40-year-old Rice his start when he hired the young Fordham assistant while Deane was at Marquette. "Our goal now is to win as many games as we can, and see how it plays out."